The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 147

used here for desire, craving, or appetite, as Ver. 32.-But whoso committeth a.dultery in Eccles. vi. 2, 7; Ezek. vii. 19. " To with a woman lacketh understanding. ■atisl'y bis soul" ie "to sustain hie life." The e.rlversa.tive "but" is wa.nting in the .llnima, Vulga.te: ,j,vxfi, LXX. original, but is clearly demanded by the Ver. 31.-But H he be taken, he shall contrast which is instituted. The man who restore sevenfold. Men do not despise the steals from hunger bas e. motive for so thief, but yet they apprehend him and doing, but the adulterer has no such excuse insist on fullest restitution. Be found; i.e. for his crime, which is an unwarrantable in. seized (Delitzech), or legally convicted vasion of his neighbour's rights. Because (Gejerus). He shall red-01'e; i.e. he must re- there a.re honest ways for satisfying bis store (Zi:ickler). Delitzsch, however, under- desires, he therefore "lacketh understand- stands the future, y'shiilem, ae potentia.l, "be ing." Committeth adultery 11Jith a wuman; may restore." Sevenfold; Hebrew, siv' atha- Hebrew, noeph rshehah; LXX., 6 µ.o,x'or; yim; LXX., br.-a1r>..d.tru1.; Vulge.te, septulwm. Vulgate, qui adulter est; i.e. an adulterer. On this word Gei:er remarks, "Ham vox nal- The Hebrew naiiph, "to commit adultery," libi ia sacris ponitur pio numero detinito;" is here followed by a.n accusative, as in i.e. "It is nowhere put in Scripture for a Lev. xx. 10 and Jer. xxix. 23. Lacketh definite number," It is therefore to be under• understanding; Hebrew, khiisiir-lev; deficit stood indefinitely of complete restitution, or, corde. The verb khaser is "to be devoid 8B it ie expressed in the second and parallel of anything,'' "to lack." The expression, clauses, "all the substance of his house." which occurs age.in in eh. vii. 7 and ix. 4, The word is used in this sense in Gen. iv. refers to the brutish and stupid condition to 24; Lev. xxvi. 28: Job v. 19 (Lapide). which last ba.s reduced him. Last bas dis- Theft under the Mosaic Law was punishable placed right reason. He is ~pers judici-i bye. fivefold,fourfold, and twofold restitution (Syriac), devoid of judgment, without in- (Exod. xxii. 1-4, 9), and, in the event of telligence, senseless and stupid. In modem this not forthcoming, the delinquent we.a phraseology, he bas ta.ken leave of his senses. to be sold into sla.very (Lev. xxv. 39). In Both the LXX. and Vulgate ha.ve combined 2 Sam. xii. 6 e. fourfold restitution is men- the two branches of this verse, the former tioned, and in the New Testa.ment Zacchmus rendering, " But the adulterer, on account of promises to restore fourfold if he could be want of intelligence, compa..sscs the loss of convicted of fraud (Luke xix. 8). In the his life," and the latter, "But the aJultercr, attempts to reconcile the "sevenfold" of our on account of want of intelligence, loses his pa.ssage with the requirements of the Mosaic life." Re tba.t doeth it destroyeth his own Law, Aben Ezra says that the combined soul; or literally, whoso will destroy his lije penalties for two cases of theft a.re contem- he will do this, i.e. adultery. So Arim plated, and others that in the time of the Monta.ni, Munsterus, Clie.Idee Te.rgum. The writer the penalties had been increased. man who commits adultery is o. self-murderer. But proof of this is wanting. Grotius's The phrase, miuihkith naph'sho, cor.-umpens explanation is more curious than correct, animnm suam, may be resolved into the viz. that if the theft be repeated seven concrete " e. self-destroyer," o.s Delitzsch. times, and he be "taken" seven times, the The following verseiil seem to indicate that thief should only be punished by being it is the temporal life which is referred to forced to make restitution with some in ni!pliesh, but tLe mea.ning of the term mny addition. Both the Greek and Roman law be ex tended to embrnce uot only physical demanded a twofold restitution. Selden loss of life, but also moral o.nd spiritual maintains that theft would have been sub- loss. By the Levitice.l La.w adultery was jected to the usual punishment (Selclen, punished by death: "The m11n tho.t com- ' De Jure Not. et Gent.,' vi. c. 6). We mitteth ndultery with another man's wife moy therefore come to the conclusion that . . . the adulterer 1.nd adulteress shall "sevenfold " is used in the sense indicated surely be put to deatL" (Lev. n. 10; cf. above. As to any objection which may be Deut. xxii. 22; J obn viii. 4, 5 ; see a.lso 1 raised on the score of inconsistency in tulk- These. iv. 6). ing of e. man me.king restitution, and giving Ver. 33.-A wound and dishonour she.11 he all his substance when he steals to satisfy get ; and his reproe.ob she.11 not be wiped his hunger, it may be remarked tliat he away. Two other tLings more immediate need not neccss1uily be without substance awn.it the odulterer-personnl chastisement of some sort or other, and be could acquire and lose of reputation. It seems clrnr that subsequently sufficient to sotisfy the demand. "a wound" (Hebrew, negiiP, "e. stroke" or On the question whether e. person is justi- "blow"), used here in the singufor, col- fied by extreme want in stenling, see Grotius, lectively refers to the corporal punishment, 'De Jure Belli et Paois,' ii.c. 2. §6: Puffon- which the outraged husband will inflict dorf, • De Jure Not. et Gent.,' ii. c. 6. § 5: upon the a,lulterer (Delitzscb, Zockler, Ble.okstone, 'Commentary,' iv. 2. § 4. Le.pide). (For the word, see Deut. xvii. i:l i  138 THE PROVERBS. [err. vr. 1-35.